Insects are an incredibly large and diverse group dominating earth’s animal life (Wilson, 1987, 1992) and typify the assertion that habitat preservation alone represents the only realistic conservation option for the majority of endan- gered species. However, the insects also contain among their ranks some of the most technically feasible and cost-effective conservation breeding programme candidates that zoos and other conservation bodies can undertake. As the programme case studies section of this chapter illustrate, endangered insect species from a range of taxonomic orders can make excellent programme recipients with good chances of successful conservation outcome, providing best management practice is followed. The public awareness raising role that insect breeding programmes can engender is an additional significant conser- vation benefit, as is the wider conservation informing role that invertebrate programmes can provide, for both ex situ and in situ management contexts.
Such programmes reflect latest thinking as to the role and value of modern zoos (Conway, 1995a,b; Balmford et al., 1996; Miller et al., 2004; WAZA, 2005). This suitability combined with increasingly sophisticated evaluation tools, includ- ing phylogenetic distinctiveness and taxa rarity (Redding and Mooers, 2006;
Isaacet al., 2007) helps address the ‘overwhelming’ species numbers issue.
At the 18th General Assembly of IUCN in Perth, Australia, a resolution was adopted urging zoos and butterfly houses to increase their participa- tion in invertebrate conservation breeding and establishment programmes (IUCN, 1991). Over the intervening period, the value of developing such initiatives has been further demonstrated. Hopefully the international zoo community, museums, universities, governmental agencies and other like- minded organizations will increasingly realize their significant potential to
help to conserve many of our planet’s most remarkable animal species and direct their energies accordingly.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the following collaborating colleagues and organizations: Paul Atkin, Onnie Byers, Oliver Cheesman, John Cooper, SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, Andrew Cunningham, Mike Edwards, English Nature, Amanda Ferguson, Frégate Island Private, Justin Gerlach, Richard Gibson, Sebastian Grant, Ian Hughes, Heather Koldewey, Daniel Koch, Land Care Research, Rob and Vicky Lucking, Donald MacFarlane, Bob Merz, Nature Seychelles, Lenka Nealova, New Zealand Department of Conservation, Romain Pizzi, John Pullin, David Priddel, Ann Pocknell, Matthew Robertson, Ilona Roma, Ratajsczak Radoslaw, Tony Sainsbury, David Sheppard, Rob Shappell, John Shaughnessy, Jane Stevens, Ian Stringer, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Craig Walker, Gerard Visser, Paul Waring, Chris West, Chris Winks, Wildlife Department of Seychelles Government and Brian Zimmerman.
This chapter is dedicated to the memory of the St Helena giant earwig, Labidura herculeana – one of many remarkable species that might still be with us had a conservation breeding initiative been attempted.
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Keywords: Red Lists, insects, conservation, Lepidoptera
1 Introduction
Red Lists have been an important tool in conservation ever since they were formalized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1963. Since then they have evolved rapidly and have been used within many individual countries, as well as to compile a global list of threatened species.
The two main aims of the IUCN Red Lists are:
1. To identify species threatened with extinction;
2. To promote their conservation.
Other more political aims stated by IUCN are to convey the scale and urgency of the problems facing biodiversity to the public and policy makers, and to motivate the global community to take action (www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/
RedLists). In 2000, a single global Red List for animals and plants was published for the first time and contained 18,000 species assessments (Hilton-Taylor, 2000).
This vast database is now available on searchable website www.iucnredlist.
org. A more recent development has been to use the global Red List to provide a global index of the state of degeneration of certain taxa (Butchart et al., 2005).
Red Lists have been used for invertebrates since their inception but the criteria have been widely criticized as being difficult to apply to this diverse group due to lack of precise data about their status (e.g. Sutherland, 2000;
New and Sands, 2004). Moreover, only 70 insect extinctions have been docu- mented in the last 600 years, despite predictions that the real figure should be near 40,000 (Dunn, 2005). Because of the lack of data, can the global Red List be meaningful if the criteria cannot be used to assess most invertebrates, which comprise over two-thirds of the world’s described species?
4 What Have Red Lists Done for Us? The Values and Limitations of Protected Species Listing for Invertebrates
M
ARTINS. W
ARREN, N
IGELB
OURN, T
OMB
RERETON, R
ICHARDF
OX, I
ANM
IDDLEBROOK ANDM
ARKS. P
ARSONSButterfly Conservation, Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Dorset BH20 5QP, UK
©The Royal Entomological Society 2007. Insect Conservation Biology
76 (eds A.J.A. Stewart, T.R. New and O.T. Lewis)
This is a serious issue given that recent evidence from Britain shows that butterflies are declining faster than either birds or plants (Thomas et al., 2004). Similarly, rapid declines have since been demonstrated amongst a far larger group of 337 common moths in Britain (Conrad et al., 2004, in prepara- tion), giving further weight to the view that the extinction crisis may be far worse than that estimated earlier. For invertebrates, the Red Listing process must be precautionary and initiate conservation action on the best available evidence, because a delay to gather conclusive data may be too late for many species (Samways, 2005).
A fundamental question is thus whether Red Lists are a sensible approach to identifying priorities amongst such a diverse and species-rich group as invertebrates, when the criteria for selection have been developed primarily for more well-known groups, such as mammals and birds.
In this chapter, we explore the use of Red Lists for invertebrates, using examples of Lepidoptera and other taxa in the UK and Europe to demonstrate their influence on conservation practice. We draw conclusions about the use of Red Lists for invertebrates and their potential for promoting their conservation.